I hear people saying that you can't fly at night where is that stated ? It must be a rule somewhere because I hear a lot of people talking about it. That is not on the registration paper so is that something new?

I hear people saying that you can't fly at night where is that stated ? It must be a rule somewhere because I hear a lot of people talking about it. That is not on the registration paper so is that something new?

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It is covered by "Keep your UAS within visual line of sight." Which can be a challenge at night. On the DJI Forum, most pilots say that they lose sight of the lights at night after a few hundred feet. I have added lights to my 3DR Solo that allow me to maintain visual contact at night for 1000+ feet (where I can distinguish orientation with the lights, I can still differentiate colors). I have a very very bright (I forget the lumens) LED light on the front of my Phantom 1 that I can see from quite a distance - even in daylight.

"Baucom was arrested and charged with interference with manned aircraft by unmanned aircraft system and resist. They also found out he had been listening to police radio traffic and he told the officers he drove to the scene to fly over the helicopter and get video footage of their pursuit."

I'm not even sure what the motivation is to fly over a law enforcement helicopter during a pursuit at night. I can't imagine the video would be very good. Then again, the only reason I can think of for drones to fly over airports is some sort of adolescent pilot fantasy. The "notified of a drone in the area" bit is a pretty cheesy on the part of the press considering the headline, although Baucom's utter lack of judgment in dealing with the police means he pretty much deserves whatever he gets.

It is covered by "Keep your UAS within visual line of sight." Which can be a challenge at night. On the DJI Forum, most pilots say that they lose sight of the lights at night after a few hundred feet.

I'm never sure what your point is with these posts?
Are you advising readers that they can fly to their heart's content all night long without the potential for repercussions? You'd be wrong.

Or are you just trying to show that you know the intricacies of the law? Flying at night can get you in trouble for flying BLOS if indeed you are. Flying at night can get you a citation for reckless endangerment if you get hung up in power lines, etc. Do you really know how the law works?

Anyone remember the Inspire here in Seattle that was flying at night and got caught in power lines 100 feet over Lake Union, causing random power outages for over a week until the power company had it removed at a cost of over $15,000.00? That would be a case of reckless endangerment.

So what do we conclude? We conclude we may not fly at night. There is no grey area. We may not fly at night. Period.

What is my point? My point is there's no law that says we may not fly at night.

However, we know the Administrator at FAA can pursue enforcement against us if we endanger the National Airspace System.

What's the difference?

The difference is, a cop can't walk up to us and write us a ticket if we happen to fly at night. He can't walk up to us and handcuff us and throw us in the back seat of his patrol car either. A law needs to be broken before they can do that. There has to be something else.

But that's not what the media would have your neighbors believe. If the media had their way, we'd be harassed by cops every time we charged a lipo.

If you want to talk about reckless endangerment, be my guest. But it has nothing to do with my posts.

I got my drone last week. What does this mean Mark? Do you have a link? When you throw **** like this out, we noobs don't know what you are talking about, or where we can look it up.

But from what you're saying Mark, it sounds like I can fly at night without any problems! Great to know, thanks!

That is what I get when I read your posts.

I didn't ask you if your posts were about "reckless endangerment."
I asked what your point is, to advise people they can fly at night, or to show us how well you know the law by throwing out snippets like "AC 91_57A" without any link or explanation?

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